tummy tuck anyone?

[Isadora]

Please dont judge me, but I am considering a tummy tuck! There are a number of reasons behind this, but to cut a long story short my tummy is a mess after carrying two babies way too big for my frame. I ended up with a hernia (which has since been repaired but not 100%) and my muscles are very separated. I am sick of being asked if I am pregnant. Lots of loose skin too. Has anyone had one done?

[PumpkinZulu]

Glamourcide has I'll let her know about this thread xx

[helle]

Glamourcide has I'll let her know about this thread xx

Yep. It looks freaking awesome too! She made a FB page of her progress, maybe you can ask if she will ad you?

[Isadora]

Ooh sounds good!!!

[skybie]

*sigh* i wish, my belly is all jelly and excess skin. i can plunge my hand into the centre of my abdomen and all my fingers go in, my muscles are so seperated.
if we had the money, or room in our budget to do i definetly would

[hannanat]

I've considered it. I'd need to lose weight and our finances would need to improve before I did anything about it though.

[sahbear]

Would love some insight from someone who has done it too.

Hopefully glamourcide can fill us in!

[Isadora]

I know, they arent cheap, I havent had a consultation but I have heard they are above ten grand? Its not the money I am worried about though, that part is sorted, I am just worried about the pain and if I am truly ready to do this as once done, no more kids or what would be the point.

Skybie - Me too, its horrible hey. Congratulations on your pregnancy btw that is great news.

[Glamourcide]

Hey girls Would love to give you all the gory details! I can honestly say that the recovery period after my 'radical abdominoplasty' was the toughest 4-6 weeks of my life, but well and truly worth every bit of what I went through. I'm just organising myself some dinner atm (have a nasty head cold and spent all day asleep on the couch), but once I've sorted that out I will be back to give you a rundown, any q's feel free I'm always happy to chat about it and help others decide if it's the right thing for them! x Thanks for the heads-up PZ

[megs]

I haven't had one done but would seriously consider one. I'm pregnant with No 4, my 2nd son streched my stomach unbelievably, if I lost the weight I also need to loose I will still have shocking excess and loose skin. I would really consider having one done.

Hopefully it might be my motivation to lose the weight

[MrsFabuloso]

I would love to have one, though I need to lose the weight I have put on since having kids. But my tummy is now a mess of terrible red/purple stretch marks from my ribs to my pelvic bone, and my tummy is all loose with extra skin. I hate it. Hopefully in the next 5-7ish years or so we will be in a position for me to have it done. Though I am petrified of the actual surgery and the pain. Not sure if, when it comes to the crunch, I will be able to subject myself to it....

[Glamourcide]

Okay, I'm back This is probably going to be a bit of a novel, and every experience is different, but this is how it all went for me, so feel free to ask any questions that I don't answer here, and if anybody would like to add me on FB (I have a 'friends' album on my profile of pics, and also a 'secret' group where I put the more intimate details lol, am happy to add anybody who's considering having a tummy tuck), just send me a PM

Bit of background: I've suffered poor body image and low self-esteem as a result of that, pretty much since I hit puberty. I don't have a 'typical' body shape - I'm broad-shouldered, slim in the hips/legs, and always carried any extra weight in the upper arms, back, and tummy areas, not in the boobs, bum and thighs like a lot of ladies. Things only got worse after carrying my two babies to full term - I gained a good 30kgs during my first pregnancy, and about 20-25kg second time around. After having DD2, I managed to get back down to about 67kgs (pre-DD1 I was 52), and carried almost all of that excess weight around the middle. I had no waist to speak of, a pot belly with lots of stretch marks, a big gap running down my abdomen where the muscles had separated, and was constantly being asked when I was due - I looked about 5 months pregnant, and although people always say now that I 'hid it well', I was absolutely miserable.
No amount of dieting and exercise was shifting that gut - it actually hurt to work out because it was kind of like having big boobs, my tummy would swing around as I ran on the treadmill. I started looking into tummy tucks and knew that I probably would never be able to afford one, but I felt it was the only way I was ever going to be able to wear fitted tops and jeans instead of baggy dresses with shapewear.
DH and I talked and argued for months, and found a way to cover the costs. The kicker was when a friend of mine (who is insanely beautiful anyway!) decided to get a boob job - I figured if she could 'enhance' her figure, why shouldn't I be able to 'fix' mine? I found a surgeon who is based a couple of hours away from me (in Central QLD), checked out their website and was pretty impressed with the work he's done, and booked a consultation.

The consultation went great - he checked me out and agreed that my problems were due partly to genetics (all the women in my family are built the way I am, and my mum, at 52, has looked about 8 months pregnant pretty much my whole life, she's always had a big belly), and partly due to the damage of bearing children. He indicated that it would require a 'big' operation (there are different forms of tummy tucks, some called 'mini' and others, like mine, are referred to as 'radical' because they involve two or more procedures performed at once), I was provided with a quote and booked a date then and there (assuming that if we decided we couldn't afford it, I could cancel later).

All up, my tummy tuck cost $12,000. That includes the surgeon's fee, anaesthetist fee, and hospital stay (DH and I don't have private health insurance and the surgeon operates out of a renowned private hospital so that part alone was just under $4000 up-front, if you have PHI your stay may be covered in part or full depending on your health fund and level of cover). I paid everything in cash (surgeon's fee 2 weeks prior, everything else when I was admitted on the day of my surgery), and was entitled to around $1000 in Medicare rebates - some people assume that you can only qualify for a tummy tuck under 'medical reasons' if you've had a c-sec and have that 'overhang', but I qualified despite having had vaginal births as the damage done to my tummy was very similar to a c-sec, so it is possible to get a rebate for needing a tummy tuck for that reason

On the day of my surgery, I was admitted to hospital and took with me the antibiotics and painkillers I'd been prescribed at my consultation - the plan was to start me on those after removing my IV drugs to ensure I didn't have a bad reaction (nothing out of the ordinary, mind you, just typical ab's, Valium and codeine/paracetamol painkillers). I was prepped for surgery, said goodbye to DH and off we went. That part was really scary, I was having flashbacks of my time in hospital when I was 3 years old (had a cyst removed) and started crying as I was wheeled into surgery, but the staff were fantastic and really helped put me at ease.

While I was under, I had an incision made from hip to hip - in the position of a c-sec scar but a LOT longer (reaches almost from bum-cheek to bum-cheek!). Another incision was made running from each corner up above my bellybutton, and that whole patch of skin was removed. The muscles running down my abdomen were sewn together from the bottom of my sternum (breastbone) all the way down to pubic mound, then the skin on my upper abdomen was pulled down to meet the skin above my pubic area/thighs and stitched together. I also had liposuction to remove fatty deposits around my hips, waist and ribs (this was an optional procedure that just helped keep things proportionate and looking 'normal' once the belly was gone, itms, it's not necessary in every case and any good surgeon will discuss these options with you and talk about $$ for 'extra' lipo if they think it's necessary). I woke up in my own room, with a compression garment around my midsection to reduce swelling and the bed bent in the middle as it would take time for the skin to stretch enough for me to stand or lay straight.

I spent two nights in hospital, and was managing to get up and about with a walking frame the morning after my surgery. I had intravenous drugs (pain relief and ab's) and a patient-administered morphine button (which was AWESOME! Cried when they took it out hahaha, I loved that thing!) and a drain in one hip. I felt very sore and tired, but was up and about and it wasn't too bad at all (thanks, painkillers!). I was on bed-rest when I got home for several days, told to get up and about as much as I could but to take it easy and not do any lifting or strenuous activity. The painkillers definitely helped in the early days, I required a little help with showering and things like cooking etc, DH took a week off to be home to help me with the kids. I couldn't drive for 6 weeks (although I was given the all-clear at a check-up at around 4 or 5 weeks), and simple activities like getting up stairs or quick trips to the supermarket wore me out really badly - I'd go to the shops for milk and bread and sleep for 4 hours when I got home, I was so exhausted!

After a few days, the pain started to kick in - my drain was still full every day, which was discouraging, and I was getting frustrated at not being able to sleep comfortably, stand up straight, wear nice clothes because of the drain and compression garment, etc etc. I developed an infection because my drain wasn't ready to come out yet, although a course of antibiotics sorted that out quickly - just meant I missed an extra week of uni because I had developed the lovely flu-like symptoms and could barely move.

I was horribly bruised from the lipo and skin stretching - it looked like I'd been run over and I took lots of photos for posterity It really didn't *feel* as bad as it looked, but it was pretty scary to see. After a few weeks, I could finally stand up straight, but had learned to rely on the compression garment to hold me up, so it hurt to *not* wear it because my muscles were on holiday - but it also hurt *to* wear it as my skin couldn't breathe and it was uncomfortably tight.

My drain finally came out 10 days post-op and it was a relief - it had started leaking a few days before and the fluid coming out smelled awful, I felt like a walking garbage can Luckily that's not part of the expected deal, it was gross lol. Once that drain came out, things got 110% better - I could start wearing comfortable clothes and get around without looking like I was carrying a bloodied colostomy bag.

I had regular check-ups every few weeks after the op, wore the compression garment for 6 weeks post-op and the tape bandage for a few more. The scar has pulled apart a bit over the blades of my hip, so it's wide and looks angry, but it will fade with time and the part in the middle looks very tidy I have a new bellybutton, which is kind of funny, and best of all - a super-flat tummy and a bit of a waist now! It was really hard work getting through the recovery period, but I guess it's much like child-birth - once you've started, there's no turning back, you just have to keep pushing and know that the end result is worth it all I definitely feel that it was - I am LOVING my new body, love shopping for clothes now instead of leaving stores in tears after finding nothing that fits or looks good, I have so much more confidence in myself and I've realised just how much my depression was a result of my body image - I have barely had a 'bad day' since the scar has healed. It really is worth all the pain and the cost, I feel so much better and have a much more positive outlook on life, not to mention being so proud of myself for having gone through it all and survived

If anyone's interested, this is a link to my 'friends' album on FB (just excuse the comments lol, I have a mouth like a sailor). Hope that helps, again, feel totally free to ask any questions or for more details!

[Me+him+bub]

Do it! I am an RN on a plastics ward, we do cosmetics and reconstruction, I will be honest the surgery is pretty brutal and you will be sore and have a drip and a few drains and a catheter but hey thats what morphine is for! but boy do they look good after! and u get to wear a sexy crotchless garment for a while!

[zap]

I am going to get one when I win tattslotto! Hehe. Doc keeps saying I can go on a waiting list but have not heard a lot about Medicare funding it!

[MrsFabuloso]

Gosh Glamourcide, thankyou so much for those photos and your story!! What an amazing body you now have! I can't wait til I can even have the possibility of looking like that again. Like you, I haven't had the greatest of relationships with my body, ever, even before having kids. Now I have real reason not to like how I look though, before it was all in my head Though I need to lose about 30or so kg first.....I would love to see some before shots if you had any?

[Freya]

Your my hero Glamourcide! Dh has already agreed I can have a tummy tuck when we are finished having kids and he can take enough leave to cover the 6wks post surgery. Its a given my tummy and the muscles are completely shot after 3 kids in 2.5 years! Im pretty sure I can get some of it on medicare too. Seeing how amazing you look has strengthened my resolve to brave the pain and do it! Thanks for sharing!

[zap]

I actually spoke to a phi company regarding Medicare and such costs and they said provided you can get a Medicare item number they will cover part of the cost if you have top cover. I am guessing hospital, doctors fees etc.

How long after kids would you all wait? I have only just had my last so I won't be doing it for at least another two years but even then it might be too soon?

[Freya]

Ive been told that its best to wait until they are not needing to be carried alot. I think Glam mentioned no heavy lifting. So I will be waiting until baby #4 (when s/he comes) is about 2.5 years old.